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Old 05-21-2018, 09:00 PM   #1
MemeRunner
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Default Best compressions settings for loud expressions in dialog

I have a dialog podcast that I'm mixing, and in parts of the dialog, a character says "Yeow!"

I'm wanting this to stand out in the mix, but am having to lower the volume with a Take Volume Envelope, and it's taken out a lot of the intensity, and is still slightly hitting the red, per the attachment.

I'm using ReaComp, per the attachment, but am not that familiar with the plugin.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to approach this, I'd greatly appreciate it.

thx
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Old 05-22-2018, 03:12 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MemeRunner View Post
I have a dialog podcast that I'm mixing, and in parts of the dialog, a character says "Yeow!"

I'm wanting this to stand out in the mix, but am having to lower the volume with a Take Volume Envelope, and it's taken out a lot of the intensity, and is still slightly hitting the red, per the attachment.

I'm using ReaComp, per the attachment, but am not that familiar with the plugin.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to approach this, I'd greatly appreciate it.

thx
I'm not sure I understand what you have going there, per your description...

The YEOW sound is on a completely different track - a track of its own?

If that is the case then I don't think a compressor with help - it is most likely going to lower the entire YEOW sound - unless you have some funky setting then it could possible have YEow or yeOW, but that's not any helpful at all.

Why don't you mix the podcast without the YEOW so that the average peaks are about -6 with the max peak -3, and when everything is in order bring in the YEOW and let it peak at about -1. Then it will be the loudest thing in the podcast, but nothing will clip.

Before you bring the YEOW in the mix, you can Master your podcast with a buss compression and limiter (put the max ceiling at -3). That way you will have a rather uniformly and loudish overall sound. Bring in the YEOW so it peaks at -1 --- if you want to make sure it won't go over put one more limiter at -1
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Old 05-22-2018, 04:18 PM   #3
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Turn everything else down a few DB so that the yeow can be prominent.

In a musical context - imagine turning all of the instruments in a mix up to be as loud as possible - then attempt to make a vocal track be heard - impossible.

So by reducing the instruments level, then you are able to have the vocal louder.

Or another way to look at it, if you have 5 really bright 100w lights on, and attempt to have one light brighter, then the only way to do this is reduce the light level of 4 lights, so that the one you want brighter / more visible can shine brighter than the others.

As far as compression - medium attack (never use fast attack)
fast/medium release, and absolute maximum 4db of compression.
Do this to all dialog tracks, and make the yeow track a few DB (or more) louder than the main track.

Last edited by ChristopherT; 05-22-2018 at 07:41 PM.
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Old 05-23-2018, 05:46 PM   #4
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How many times does the person say shout this? If it's just a few I would split it on both sides to create a new item and click on it to bring up the item properties, and then lower it enough so that it fits in the general dynamic range of the rest and still retains some intensity. So that it sounds nearly good enough before using compression.

The other advice would be to not use a single compressor to tackle this issue. Use two, the second being set more like a limiter. Try this: on the first Recomp have a low ratio, around 3:1, attack 20ms, release 70ms, knee around 5. Set the threshold so that it just knocks down the program around 3 or 4 db tops. Then have it followed by a second instance set more like a limiter. ratio 30:1, with the attack and release a bit faster, 15ms and 60ms, knee at 0. Set the threshold so that it ONLY kicks in on the transients that jump through the first Reacomp, not all the time. You can adjust this so it works best on the "Yeow"s and then check how it works on the rest of the program, or find a good threshold on the program, where it's only reducing the top transients and not kicking in otherwise and check that setting on the "Yeow"s.

Reacomp isn't really exactly being a limiter here but it's being limiter like. There are several good limiters in the JS fx section (mine has plugins from different origins, mostly arriving via Repack, so I'm not sure which come stock with Reaper, but anything that's named limiter you should give a whirl). As a simple tool for podcast voices you can't go wrong using the free Loudmax vst plugin as the limiter after the compressor https://loudmax.blogspot.com Set the output desired and the threshold so that it only knocks down the transients that make it past the compressor.

If you have a bunch of instances of the shout it might be worth it to tame it with plugins. If it's only there two or three times just use the volume envelope or item volume to bring it down slightly, to be more manageable but not lose intensity, and then have compressor followed by a limiter do the rest. It's entirely possible you won't be able to have both the level you want and not lose more intensity than you want no matter how you do it. The sound of a loud shout that's brought down to match the level of soft conversation is likely going to be weird or unnatural sounding. That's just the nature of the beast : ) You do want to protect the ears of the listener and compromise the intensity of the shout if you have to.
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